There are many patents that deal with the allocation of resources in a telephone communication system. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,363,427 for a Telephone Resource Allocation method in a Communication System to Ekstrom, et al. discloses a telephone resource allocation method in a communication system. When a request for allocation comes in, communication resource allocator tries to find an available telephone resource for that particular call. If no resource is available, the allocator waits for a telephone resource to become available from either the primary or the secondary set of telephone resources. Additional examples occur in U.S. Pat. No. 5,420,909 for a Method For Allocating Telephone and Communication Resources to Ng, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,512,884 for a User Requested Communication Resource Allocation to Hesse, et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,583,869 for a Method For Dynamically Allocating Wireless Communication Resources to Grube et al. Grube, et al. '869 re-allocates or releases telephone resources upon completion of a call.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,442,634 for a Resource Allocation to Non-Critical Users to Cizek discloses a telephone allocation system for both critical and non-critical users. The apparatus identifies user groups as either critical or non-critical. Based upon this classification, the apparatus either allocates or denies allocation of resources.
What is needed is a telephone allocation system and process that prevents one call from freeing up the resources allocated to another call in progress. Because such a scenario should not occur in the first place, what is also needed is a mechanism for notifying the operator whenever one call attempts to free up the resources allocated to another call in progress.